Thursday, October 24, 2013

I am enamored with indie nail polish this is no secret. Just visit the indie lovers thread over at the Make Up Talk forums and you will find me posting constantly. I first tried Hit Polish because she made a Green Bay Packers glitter polish and I had to have it. I am so glad I did. I can not say enough wonderful things about every single experience that I have had with Hit Polish. The wonderful master behind Hit Polish is Rachel. While I do not personally know her, I feel like she's a long lost friend. She's incredibly dedicated to her customers and is really genuine. Her shipping is ninja like and her interaction with her customers is one of my favorite things about the brand. I feel like she's making polish just for me and my closest polish loving friends.

Today I am featuring the Dark Crystal collection that was offered as a mini themed grab back late last month. I had wanted to review it but since it was a limited edition I didn't want to get anyone excited for something they couldn't have. This line has been slightly reformulated and is being reintroduced and will be available for purchase very soon. There will be full sized versions as well.

As always shipping was incredibly fast. Granted, mine only has to come about 8 hours away but I placed an order on Friday and by Monday afternoon it was sitting in my mailbox!!! It was wrapped in the signature zebra print baggie with an adorable Dark Crystal sticker adorning the front. I must confess I tore through the packaging on this one so quickly as I was incredibly eager to see what was inside. I love mystery bags. Especially ones themed after movies I adore. The Dark Crystal does not disappoint.

Aughra's Orrey is a golden jelly packed with tons of golden glitters. It also has what look like holographic pastel glitters. In the light it reflects a teal and purple shimmer for a completely unique combination that makes this golden gem stand out. This is shown with three thin coats but it can easily be layered over other polish. I didn't have a gold base at all to use. There appears to be a defect on the middle finger but in fact that is my reflection while taking the photo. I actually really like it layered over black.

I'm Skeksis & I Know It is a beautiful glitter polish. It's packed with blue and silver glitters and even some burgundy circles and smaller scattered purple glitter all in a clear base. I am wearing one coat over two coats of Essence Grey-T To Be Here.

The Dark Crystal is the namesake of the bunch and truly lives up to it. It's a purple polish with holographic glitters, purple shard glitter and gold glitter. This polish stands out. I searched my stash to realize I had no purple glitter polishes that were not top coats. It's unique, rich, and so incredibly dense with sparkle. In my swatches it appears almost blurple but that is not what this really looks like. It can be worn alone or layered over something which is what I did here. This is over one coat of Wet n' Wild Spoiled in 2 Weeks Sober.

I saved my favorite for last. We Are Again One is a milky white/tan polish crelly with gold and what I would call charcoal colored glitters. It has a shimmer quality that is extremely subtle but really helps this polish stay that one step above the competition. This is in the same vein as the recent Hard Candy candy sprinkles line that was relaunched this spring. What makes We Are Again One different is it's simplicity. The use of just a few colors keeps this from being just your every day jawbreaker looking nail polish and gives it a sophistication that similar style polishes do not have. I think the base not being stark white is a smart choice. The formula is fantastic on it compared to the Hard Candy which get thick and very difficult to use very quickly.

These should be released on October 26th at 3pm with her relaunch. It appears I'm Skeksis & I Know It won't be being re-released which is unfortunate but I am sure she's going to have something amazing to take it's place. This collection just touches the tip of the iceberg in terms of what Hit Polish is capable of. I have, by far, more polish from her than any other indie brand. The prices are good and she often does sales. Her service is excellent and shipping is second to none.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Some days you just see a product and think to yourself "I have to
have that". That is what happened when I saw the Halloween 2013
collection from indie polish brand Glitter Daze. I have been dying to
try a thermal nail polish now for as long as I can remember. I felt
like this polish literally jumped off the screen and grabbed me like a
zombie in a horror film. As fate would have it, it was payday and they
were being launched during my lunch hour.

I was so
eager to have this polish I splurged for the 2 day shipping which was
considerably more than the regular by weight option. So I waited. I
then received my email stating my package was shipping. Without getting
into a whole lot of detail, my package was inadvertently delayed and
wouldn't be shipping on the 15th as originally thought but would go out
on the 18th instead. I sent a very angry email to Glitter Daze in
protest. I was met with some amazing customer service. An explanation
was given along with an apology and my shipping was refunded from the
express amount to the regular shipping rate. This was just over $5.00.
I am incredibly pleased with the service I was given by Glitter Daze. I
was made a loyal customer by the gestures that were extended for me.
My biggest complaint in this entire world is lack of human interaction
and decency and I was more than shown this courtesy.

On
to the polish. I finally got my package today. With the anticipation
of a child on Christmas I unwrapped the beautiful little bundle nestled
in pink tissue paper and cuddled with bubble wrap. I am sucker for a
pretty packaging .

Outdoors in the heat

This polish is amazing. I buy quite
a bit of indie glitter/crelly polishes and this one was top notch. It
went on super smooth. The formula is a bit thick but that did not work
against it. In two coats it was opaque and perfect. The glitters don't
drag on the second coat and I had no issues with distributing them at
all. When I first saw this polish online with a macro shot of the
bottle, it did not do this polish justice. There are all kinds of
glitters packed inside here. The larger rectangular black ones remind
me of the chocolate chips inside Bryers Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream.
There's small red glitters and what look like holographic glitters that
give it so much sparkle. I never would have gotten that from the
initial images I saw.

Being my first thermal I wasn't
sure what to expect. I hope they all act like this. The transitions
are quick and so much fun to look at. I love seeing how cold one room
is compared to the others. It wasn't just here's the warm color on your
nail closest to your skin and your tips are red. There are in between
colors and an when it's kind of cool it almost looks pink and reminds me
of Ghiradelli Peppermint Bark candy.

Bottom line: You need this polish.

Transitioning from cool to hot

Naturally with a cool drink

Cold (achieved after chopping tomatoes)

Just added: With a topcoat after a full day of wear. Still stunning! Glitter comes out so much better with topcoat.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

For the third daily challenge we have the color yellow. I love yellow. I knew immediately what I wanted to do for this day as well. This design has been done to death recently with the release of Despicable Me 2 but I wanted my shot at it too and it will have a tie in or two come the rest of the challenge.

The middle finger is my favorite.

I am so happy with the way it came out. I had some camera issues and should be updating this with better pictures as soon as I can but still even with a blurry iPhone camera these are adorable. For the yellow I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Lightening. The blue is Revlon Top Speed in Superstitious. This is a fantastic blue polish. I can not say enough about it. The black is Sinful Colors in Black on Black. The eyeballs are Sinful Colors Snow Me White. For the goggles I used China Glaze Holographic in Cosmic Dust. That was genius! The eyes to me are my favorite part. My boyfriend said they looked like real googly eyes. Lastly the mouth is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Fuchsia Flare.

I hope I can do this again when my nails grow out so I have more room for facial expression and for hair or perhaps I will make shorter pants. I am loving how due to my inconsistent nail lengths I have short fat minions and tall skinny ones.

There is a bit of a rainbow effect in this challenge for the first few days. After red comes orange. I have 40 different shades of orange in my current stash and was stoked to create nail art with this color. I knew immediately what I wanted to accomplish with the design. Initially I wanted to do 5 little cat faces on my nails using the Bundle Monster stamp M91 but it was just too tiny. The background was too dark and it didn't show up. Thankfully I have a very honest boyfriend who gives me legitimate and critical feedback and I was able to change things up. I am thrilled with how it turned out. It was even better than I imagined it.

This ended up being so appropriate as well because I had just bought tickets to a speaking engagement with Jackson Galaxy the cat behaviorist. I am a huge fan and actually applied to be on his show "My Cat From Hell" but I never heard back. My nail art is a tribute to a very special cat named Link. He's one of the reason's I wanted Jackson to come here. Link belonged to a friend of mine named Kurt. He was rescued by Kurt at a flea market in 2008 and is a little on the strange side. In 2010 Kurt was diagnosed with Leukemia and was told he could no longer keep his cats due to health reasons and was forced to give up Link. At the time I had already just taken on a new kitten that showed up and had enough cats but knew Link would never make it in a shelter due to his issues.

Kurt passed away in February of 2011 and now Link is all I have left of him. It means the world to me to have saved this little guy and every time I look at him I think of my best friend.

So without further ado, here is my Link inspired nail art.

For this I used some older polishes including the base which was Cover Girl Peaches & Cream from the mid 90's. It was part of a parfait collection. I then used the saran wrap technique to add Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Man-go Team!. I hand painted the rest of the designs. The black is my trusty Sinful Colors in Black on Black and the white is also from Sinful Colors in Snow Me White. I sponged on the chin with a makeup sponge. For the eyes I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Chartreuse Chase and the nose is China Glaze textured polish in Itty, Bitty & Gritty. I smudged a bit when I used Seche Vite which isn't supposed to happen but it was perfect because his nose felt like a kitty nose. Seriously too cute for words!!!

When I think of red nails I think of two things. I think sophistication and I think rockabilly 1950's. I am neither of those things. I have only wore a few red manicures in recent years and mostly upon request from the other half because he happens to find red nails to be sexy.

What I had in my head and what I finished are not the same. I ended up choosing a simple matte finish polish called Get It On by Sinful Colors from the Leather Luxe collection. These polishes are awesome. I picked up 4 of them and want to get the rest. The formula on this one was bit tricky because it did not want to level out. I then just did a simple stamp with China Glaze Ruby Pumps using Mash plate 48 for the flames. It looked way different under different lighting and I found that to be a fun and unexpected "feature" of this manicure. I preferred it with the darker shade of red and more of the obvious flame showing but it's still pretty both ways. I was warned this polish stains but it didn't really stain for me which was a plus. I wasn't over the moon with this design but I didn't hate it either. I spent way too much time figuring out what to do.

I would like to revisit the idea of red nail art in the near future. I didn't give it as much love as I should have.

Good morning. I am a bit behind in this post as the challenge actually started on the 1st of September. I have been participating just not blogging about it. Today I will be making several posts to catch myself up to speed.

What exactly is the 31 day nail art challenge? Every day for 31 days a different theme or idea is given and the participant must create nail art to match. This is the 3rd year this has been going on. There is a hashtag for this year's event to show your art off #31dc2013. Here is a list of the challenges.

Since I change my polish pretty much every day anyway I am confident I can get through this! What I am looking forward to is pushing myself to think outside the box and also get outside my own comfort zone.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Wow! Do I have a gem for you today. I recently began purchasing indie polishes online. Let's face it, I am an instant gratification kind of chick and part of my fun is getting great deals. That is, until I stumbled upon some indie polishes and timidly made my first purchase. Now my thrill is in seeking out these unique beauties and purchasing them before they are gone forever. This amazing polish I have for you today is just such a score.

Last Sunday at 4 AM I had a serious case of insomnia. I picked up my trusty iPhone 4 and began to Google for polishes. I had a desire for something milky with pastel glitters. This, my friends, is my weakness. I love all kinds of polishes but there is something enchanting about these finishes for me. By some miraculous stroke of luck, I happened upon a blog post for a polish called Carebear Stare by Lacquer Lust. Being an 80's child, I again was drawn to it. The swatches were pretty and the review was good so I impulsively added it to my cart and ordered it before I changed my mind. The polish was 8.00 with 2.50 shipping. For indies I like to stay under 10 that's my max so I got this one with the shipping for that.

The email response was prompt. I then received a second email on Tuesday 12:25 AM advising me my order was ready for shipping and a tracking number assigned. I got my polish on Wednesday people! WOW! When I got the package, my special treatment continued. I have purchased polish online before but never received anything like this.

How adorable is this?

It was so cute I didn't want to open it. Of course I did.

Please excuse the messy desk but I was so excited to show it off. I will be putting it on tonight and will update this when I do. I just wanted to say how awesome I think Lacquer Lust is. I have treasured every moment of this polish purchase like none other. I will be buying from her in the future.

However, when I posted this to a forum of indie polish lovers, we soon discovered her site is only showing a pre-order for a birthstone collection and this one is nowhere to be found. While I am sad, I am extremely lucky to be able to own it. So if you want this gem, please keep trying her.

Almost two months after I first made this post, I realized I never posted any photos of my swatches. At the time my nails were very short and I wasn't happy with the pictures. Here is three thin coats of Carebear Stare.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

I grew up in a very small town in Wisconsin population 1100. Living that kind of lifestyle suited most of the residents. Those people actually chose that setting on purpose. For a teenager, that was not the case. You don't really get to experience fashion or shopping when your main source of commerce is the local feed store. I predate the internet. The only escape was to travel the hour long commute to Appleton which at the time had a population of a mere 65,000 people. This was no New York City or booming metropolis but it did have an awesome mall and much more to do than where I came from. To me, it was like the most amazing place on earth.

The mall was the very first place I had ever seen nail polish of any color that wasn't red, pink or nude. They had kiosks set up near the food court entrance filled with tiny bottles of bold colored polish. The 6 of them I purchased all were shimmer polishes. I don't remember if they had any cremes or glitters either back then but one of them is labeled as a duo-chrome polish shifting from baby blue to gold. From the labels these were manufactured by Townley Cosmetics. A quick Google search shows me they now make Hello Kitty cosmetic sets and apparently does not test on animals. I have found nothing about the shades I have or anything else about the nail polish from that long ago. While the Streetwear collection is in high demand on Ebay and has many blogs dedicated to it, I have never seen any of these anywhere online.

Most of these as you can see have been almost used up. Volcano is by far not only my favorite of this group but one of my favorites of all time. I have seen colors similar before but none an exact dupe for this shade. When I do, I will be snatching it up with a few spares as well.

Now for the swatches.

Application on these was a mess. I am certain that's because of the age and the fact I have had to add thinner to them a number of times. At one point I had to use a pliers to get some of the bottles open because they had nearly dried up and were in storage for 5 years. Hot Rod actually went on rather well and is also a favorite of mine because it's a very good Green Bay Packers green. Greena is in fact a shade of blue.

From left to right: Greena, Alice Copper, and Hot Rod

From left to right: Blue Gold, Jelly Bean and Volcano

Also at the mall was a little store called Hot Topic. I don't remember the exact year that I bought these but I have 2 polishes from the Urban Decay line. Gangrene was my absolute favorite. I was a huge fan of emerald green and completely used it up. I also broke the cap at some point so what was left dried up and all I have is an empty bottle and memories! I still have a tiny bit of Gash left but will only use it for super special occasions. I loved the colors and names of these polishes. I wish I had purchased more shades when I had the chance. Some day if I feel inspired I may try my hand at Ebay and pick some up if and when I see them. I would definitely like to have another bottle of each of these.

Monday, August 19, 2013

To start my blog, I wanted to go back in time. The year was 1996. Tickle me Elmo was the hottest toy ever, Cuba Gooding, Jr. asked us to "show him the money" and Cal Ripkin, Jr. broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive games played streak. It was also in 1996 that Revlon launched their Streetwear line of cosmetics and a young 19 yr old deli clerk stumbled into a tiny Walgreens on lunch break and a polish obsession was born.

I didn't realize back then what exactly I was getting into but I was never a girlie girl. I liked rap music, baggy clothes and had a bit of a chip on my shoulder. I knew the moment I laid eyes on "Midnight" I had to start wearing nail polish.

From left to right: Splash, Charming, Diamond Girl, Moody, and Midnight

From left to right: Toad, Grass Stain, Confetti, Hologram, Gun Metal and Tar.

I did lose one of them that I used to have that was Nightmare. It was a black and silver bar glitter. I purchased back ups for Splash and Charming back then without even realizing what I was doing. I just knew I loved the colors.

Now for the swatches.

From left to right: Moody, Diamond Girl, Charming and Splash

From left to right: Midnight, Toad, Grass Stain and Gun Metal

From left to right: Tar, Hologram, and Confetti

I can't pick a favorite. Moody and Grass Stain both have a bit of shimmer in them which I didn't remember. Confetti has a tinted base, I am not sure if that's from age or if that was how they intended it. When I swatched over white it was really noticeable. All swatches are 2 coats with no topcoat except Hologram and Confetti which were one very thick coat just so I could show them.

Welcome to the very first post for Miss Kitty Nails. I wanted to start this blog so that I can share my love of nail polish and nail art with the world. I have been collecting nail polish since the mid 1990's. I kept it under control due to space limitations until purchasing a home in 2011. After finally setting up my dream room I began to go all out in early 2013.

For me, there are two parts to my polish obsession. First is the chase. I love stalking my local beauty supply and discount stores in search of the ultimate deal. In my recent hauls I have found some ridiculous deals getting Nicole by OPI polishes for example for $1.00! I try not to purchase polish at full retail prices. If I do, I usually shop around to get the best deals. I enjoy the collecting and swatching aspects so much that I would rather spend $18.00 on 15 polishes than one bottle of a higher end brand. That's just how I like to do things. I plan on sharing those deals as part of this blog so other people can see what you can get if you don't mind waiting a bit. This is not to say I don't splurge once in awhile like the case of Alcatraz...Rocks in the OPI San Francisco line. I gladly paid the $9.00 to get this now. I fully intend on purchasing a back up bottle and will wait until I find a sale for that one if possible.

The second part is the collection. I currently have 560 polishes swatched out on color wheels and a full storage drawer full of oldies I haven't gotten around to adding to my list. That does include mini's and small bottles as well. I am a hoarder by nature and tend to not get rid of anything. My favorite part of the day is coming home after shopping for polish and lining up my new purchases and adding them to the current collection. I will be reviewing and posting pictures of some of my existing collection as well as anything I purchase new from now on.

I encourage comments and conversations as well. I am a blog rookie and want to know how I am doing and any feedback is appreciated. I am in awe of some of the blogs I see and I aspire to be in that company. In my polish research when I am at stores I definitely look at what others have reviewed and used it to help make my decisions.